


An evening with Paul Herrero: Mary-Jane Brighton

by Flexor



Series: The RWBY Interviews [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Interview, Late Night Talk Show, actress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 13:24:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7510054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flexor/pseuds/Flexor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'm sure that with all the appreciation for Team RWBY, many people wonder about the incredibly talented actors who play our favourite characters, Actors such as the lovely and talented Mary-Jane Brighton, who plays Yang. Recently, she was on the late-night talk show with Paul Herrero. This is the interview.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An evening with Paul Herrero: Mary-Jane Brighton

**Paul Herrero:** Good evening, good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to "An evening with Paul Herrero". And isn't wonderful though, to see how new mobile games are bringing joy to the entire world? Just look at those little Pokemon Go! Kids have a new fun game that actually gets them out from behind those X-boxes and PCs. The news outlets have some exciting new ways for people to die, Feminists have something new to denounce for sexism, Progressives have something new to denounce for ableism, speciesism, racism, and how this game is poisoning the impressionable minds of our children into thinking that dog fighting and cock fighting is just A-Okay, what's _not_ to love?

**Audience:** {Laughs}

**Paul Herrero:** Well, tonight we have a very special guest for you, I'm sure you've all heard of the hugely successful series of movies in the popular RWBY franchise. The fourth volume of these movies will be out this October, and our first guest this evening is the beautiful and talented miss Mary-Jane _Brighton_! Give her a big hand!

{Mary-Jane Brighton enters, beaming, to thunderous cheers from the audience. Paul Herrero gets up, exchanges air-kisses with Mary-Jane. They sit down.}

**Paul:** Mary-Jane, welcome to the show and thank you for joining us.

**Mary-Jane:** Well thank you for having me.

**Paul:** Always a pleasure. How have you been?

**Mary-Jane:** It's been great, thank you. Very busy shooting the new season, which is always great fun.

**Paul:** Ah yes. The fourth season. For those of us who've been living under a rock these last few years, what _is_ Ruby? Spelled R-W-B-Y, actually.

**Mary-Jane:** Well Paul, RWBY is a science fiction/fantasy action adventure set in the world of Remnant, where Humanity is struggling against the darkness that surrounds them, and the only people protecting them from the Creatures of Grimm are the Huntresses and Huntsmen. And the story is about four young girls training to become Huntresses.

**Paul:** And your character is...

**Mary-Jane:** Yang Xiao Long.

**Paul:** Uh... Yang Xiao...

**Mary-Jane:** Yep.

**Paul:** Well at the risk of being culturally insensitive, you don't exactly _look_ like, well...

**Mary-Jane:** {Laughs} Yeah. Why they gave the whitest chick in the whole series a Chinese name, I have no idea. But I kinda like it. It's integration. Reaching across cultural boundaries. And it means "Little Sun Dragon" in Chinese, how awesome is that?

**Paul:** Could you tell us a little more about, um, Xiao Long?

**Mary-Jane:** Oh, they call her Yang. Which would be all wrong in Chinese, but the original writer said that there's no China in Remnant, so he can do whatever the hell he likes. Yang... {Thinks a few moments} She's the powerhouse of the team. She's really really strong, she's a kind of boxer, and she gets stronger when people hit her. When she's charged enough, she can punch a massive robot and smash it to bits.

**Paul:** Ah. I think we have a clip of that, let's play it.

{Clip plays of Team RWBY defeating the Paladin with Torchwick inside. Audience cheers}

**Paul:** Whoa! That's impressive! So tell us about your team.

**Mary-Jane:** Well, there's Ruby Rose, she's my cute little sister with a great big scythe. And then there's Weiss Schnee, who's the daughter of some filthy rich industrial dude, and a really spoilt little brat, but she mellows out later. And the girl with the black bow is Blake Belladonna, who's a very shadowy ninjary kind of girl, and she's my partner.

**Paul:** Partner? {Grins, puts chin in hand} Tell me more!

**Mary-Jane:** {Chuckles} Not in the way you think, you perv. Huntresses come in pairs, and in the first test, she was the first person I made eye contact with.

**Paul:** Ohh, so there's no...

**Mary-Jane:** Hot girl-on-cat action? Nope. Sorry. Mind you, that doesn't stop the fan artists. _Or_ the writers. {Waves at the audience} Hi there you little freaks! {Audience laughs}

**Paul:** So is there any romance at all in RWBY, or is it all fighting and running around?

**Mary-Jane:** Well, not so far. I mean there's one pair, A dude named Jaune and a girl named Pyrrha, and Pyrrha's got the hots for Jaune, but Jaune's got his eyes on the Weiss, but she's not interested. But... Um how far are you guys into the series? Let's just say it don't end well. One lousy kiss, dammit!

**Paul:** Oh well, just go and see. Hang on. You said girl-on- _cat_ action? What's up with that?

**Mary-Jane:** Oh, Blake's a Faunus. Faunus are just like normal people but they have some kind of animal trait. Bunny ears, a monkey tail, horns, and Blake's got cat ears. Which is why she wears that bow. Faunus are a bit of an under-class in Remnant, lots of discrimination, and some of them turn violent.

**Paul:** So not exactly a Utopia then?

**Mary-Jane:** Far from it. That's what makes the story interesting to me, you start out thinking that it's just the good guys versus the bad guys, but the bad guys have a point now and then, and sometimes, the good guys do really bad things.

**Paul:** Right. So there's a lot of fighting going on. Do you do your own stunts?

**Mary-Jane:** Oh yes, yes, _yes_! I do as much of it as the insurance companies will let me. For everything else, I've got an awesome stuntwoman named Barbara Dunkelman. So when Yang gets catapulted into a forest, that's Barbara, with a few shots of me on wires going _whee_! And then they cart her off to the hospital, and I take her place to look cute.

**Paul:** Oh come on, that must get expensive in stuntwomen. I can't belive they really do that!

**Mary-Jane:** {Smiles} You must believe that what makes you happiest.

**Paul:** Heh. So do you do the fight scenes too? Did you have to learn a lot of moves?

**Mary-Jane:** Well, I was into semi-pro kickboxing a while back, but I got out of that. Don't wanna go into details, but it ain't exactly a healthy sport if you catch me. Actually the hardest thing to learn was to do a _Hollywood_ kick and _not_ hit people. {Smiles at the camera} Sorry Nova!

**Paul:** That's Nova Cassata, who plays...

**Mary-Jane:** Neopolitan, the silent assassin. She's great, got a lovely singing voice. Shame, really. But Neo kicked Yang's butt, so she got her own back.

**Paul:** So... Is there anything else you want to talk about? Any question that everybody asks, but I've missed? This is your chance.

**Mary-Jane:** {Chuckles} Well, there's one question on everybody's mind, but nobody ever asks. They just watch the scenes where I'm running or jumping very _very_ carefully.

**Paul:** Uhh...

**Mary-Jane:** And the answer is yes. Yes, they are. Mind you, the _hair_ isn't. Lots of extensions there. My makeup guy is fantastic. So now you know. I'm a work of nature, not sculpted by human hands.

**Paul:** Doesn't that... bother you? I mean people looking no further than...

**Mary-Jane:** {Shrugs in an eye-watering way} Not really. I mean, I _do_ want to get recognised for something more than just my rack, but the fact is the Girls did land me a lot of jobs. Not saying I wouldn't be here if my chest was a bit smaller, but I'm here now. And the writers, bless them, are doing their best to make Yang into something more than just a bimbo. {Chuckles} I mean, she _is_ , but there's more to her than that.

**Paul:** Can you give an example?

**Mary-Jane:** {Thinks a while} She's a very caring person, very protective of her friends and family. She's like this force of nature, can't keep her down. And there's this weird relationship she has with her missing mother that you can really get your teeth into as an actor. She, like, _looks_ simple, buit she's actually pretty complex.

**Paul:** But she's fallen on hard times recently, hasn't she?

**Mary-Jane:** Oh yes. Poor girl has been hit hard. So she's a bit under the weather right now. That's the way Season Three ends. Not with a Yang, but a whimper.

{Audience groans. "God Dammit MJ!"}

**Paul:** {Laughs} And that's all we have time for, people! Be sure to catch Mary-Jane in the next season of RWBY, coming out late this October! 

 

{Music} 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was an idea I had knocking about for a while. And then I saw this bit of fan art, and I was moved to get off my butt and write it. Of *course* Yang is first!
> 
> http://jadenkaiba.deviantart.com/art/QUICK-SKETCHWORK-RWBY-Volume-3-That-s-a-Wrap-596753039
> 
> So... Should I do more of these?


End file.
